How did you start playing AW?

People are talking about marketing so I figured it might be a helpful excersise to have a think about how some of us started playing the game and even how and why some of us stopped.

This is pretty simple:
Tell us when and how you first heard about AW.
Tell us why you kept playing
and tell us what it was about premium that made you buy it. And how long did it take you to splash the cash? Plus anything else you can think of that made you enjoy the game

The whole point is to go back to the roots of the game so that we can think in terms of ways to increase the player base. Dave might find this helpful. But its also a chance to reminisce